TR: Little Lakes Valley 7/5-7/6/14
Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2014 8:59 pm
I wanted to get my wife and my two dogs up in the High Sierra over 4th of July weekend. My wife had not been backpacking in almost two years, so she wanted a fairly easy hike. Little Lakes Valley seemed like the perfect option because the trail allows you to get deep into the High Sierra in minimal time and with minimal gain.
Us With The Dogs Above Box Lake
It was definitely bear country out there. We saw a bear running around down by Box Lake, and then we saw another bear at Long Lake. The bear at Long Lake put on quite the show for us. He did a lap in the lake, swimming from the far end of the lake until about 20 yards in front of us on the trail and then scampered up the hill towards Chickenfoot Lake. The bear was a strong doggie paddler. When we got up to Chickenfoot Lake, people told us that they had just seen a bear. I figured it was the same bear, but you never know.
We made it up to Chickenfoot Lake and set up camp there. We had a nice afternoon by the lake. There were some big puffy clouds in the sky that gave us some much needed shade. I worried about the clouds turning into an afternoon thunderstorm, but by the early evening the sky started to clear up.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/oqdpeo]
MoMo Lounging
[url=https://flic.kr/p/o8K8jA]
Chickenfoot Lake Vertical
Around 7:30 p.m., I was sitting on a rock staring at the sky waiting to see how the sunset was shaping up and then I saw off in the distance a huge wall of purplish clouds coming straight at us. I knew it was a thunderstorm headed our way, so my wife and I got all of our stuff organized in our tent for the storm. I waited in the tent until about 8:20. I knew it was about sunset time, and it was not raining that hard, so I ran down to the lake with my camera to see what I could capture before it started raining harder. I only ended up having about 5 minutes to take pictures, but boy was I happy I went down there.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/o8K8jf]
High Sierra Storm
In the morning, there were still some lingering clouds so I went back down to the lake to try and take some morning reflections shots.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/opXBCk]
[url=https://flic.kr/p/o8KgWU]
Once I finished taking pictures, we packed up and headed back down the trail. The skeeters were pretty bad in the morning (the rain the night before probably made them worse), so other than a stop off at Long Lake for more pictures, we just hustled down the trail back to the parking lot.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/ood2S1][url=https://flic.kr/p/ood2S1]
Long Lake
Us With The Dogs Above Box Lake
It was definitely bear country out there. We saw a bear running around down by Box Lake, and then we saw another bear at Long Lake. The bear at Long Lake put on quite the show for us. He did a lap in the lake, swimming from the far end of the lake until about 20 yards in front of us on the trail and then scampered up the hill towards Chickenfoot Lake. The bear was a strong doggie paddler. When we got up to Chickenfoot Lake, people told us that they had just seen a bear. I figured it was the same bear, but you never know.
We made it up to Chickenfoot Lake and set up camp there. We had a nice afternoon by the lake. There were some big puffy clouds in the sky that gave us some much needed shade. I worried about the clouds turning into an afternoon thunderstorm, but by the early evening the sky started to clear up.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/oqdpeo]
MoMo Lounging
[url=https://flic.kr/p/o8K8jA]
Chickenfoot Lake Vertical
Around 7:30 p.m., I was sitting on a rock staring at the sky waiting to see how the sunset was shaping up and then I saw off in the distance a huge wall of purplish clouds coming straight at us. I knew it was a thunderstorm headed our way, so my wife and I got all of our stuff organized in our tent for the storm. I waited in the tent until about 8:20. I knew it was about sunset time, and it was not raining that hard, so I ran down to the lake with my camera to see what I could capture before it started raining harder. I only ended up having about 5 minutes to take pictures, but boy was I happy I went down there.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/o8K8jf]
High Sierra Storm
In the morning, there were still some lingering clouds so I went back down to the lake to try and take some morning reflections shots.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/opXBCk]
[url=https://flic.kr/p/o8KgWU]
Once I finished taking pictures, we packed up and headed back down the trail. The skeeters were pretty bad in the morning (the rain the night before probably made them worse), so other than a stop off at Long Lake for more pictures, we just hustled down the trail back to the parking lot.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/ood2S1][url=https://flic.kr/p/ood2S1]
Long Lake